Page 7 of Sizzling In the Mountains

One of the firemen comes strutting over. Not the hot one with the undershirt and tattoos who held me in his warm comforting arms. The other one. The clumsy one with the big ears and the big mouth who dropped Charlotte’s Web into a puddle.

“Looks like you need a drink,” he says with a cocky smile. I want to put my cigarette out on his forehead. “Can I buy you one?”

Is this guy seriously trying to ask me out?

“Oh, don’t be upset,” he says with a shrug. “They’re just books. I didn’t read books as a child and look how I turned out.”

“Oh god…”

I accidentally say that out loud.

He doesn’t seem to notice. I think a lot of things go over his head without him noticing.

“I’m Doug Douglas,” he says. Hold on, is he flexing right now? “I’m practically in charge of the fire station. Anyway, me and the boys are heading to The Cracked Barrel Saloon tonight for Fight Night.”

I stare at him in wonder as I take a drag on my cigarette. Is he seriously trying to ask me on a date to The Cracked Barrel Saloon? I’ve seen that place on the side of the highway. It looks like a seedy bar some of my book boyfriends would hang out in.

“Did you say Fight Night?” I don’t want to talk to this guy anymore, but he’s got my curiosity peaked. What the hell is Fight Night?

He nods. “Yeah, every third Thursday of the month, the owner Marvin hosts bare-knuckle fights in a cage in the back of the bar.”

“Cool,” one of the boys says.

“It’s not cool,” I tell him. “It’s barbaric.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” Doug Douglas says, nodding. “James is going up there.”

“Who’s James?” I ask.

He points to the hot fireman who was comforting me before. The one who was holding the firehose like a sexy fire god. He keeps looking at me with those smoldering brown eyes. Every time he does, it sends a little thrill of excitement rippling through me.

My body keeps craving those big tattooed arms. It felt so nice to be held by him. I want to feel it again.

It felt like I was in free fall until those strong comforting arms caught me and kept me from falling into the dark abyss. He kept me grounded. He kept me sane.

Those sexy brown eyes find me again and I quickly toss my cigarette onto the ground, crushing it with my foot this time.

He moves like a panther as he heads to the hose. It must weigh a ton, but he lifts it easily and tosses it over his big round shoulder. I can tell he doesn’t like Doug talking to me. He keeps shooting him fierce glances like he might drag Doug into the cage tonight and teach him a lesson.

A dark part of me—the part of me that I like to keep hidden, the part that lusts over my bad boy book boyfriends—rises up and begins to make herself known. She wants to see James in that cage tonight, grabbing other men and slamming his fist into their bodies. She wants to hear the grunts and see the sweat. She wants a lot more than that too, but I’m not ready to fully unleash her yet.

“I’m sure I’ll be in the mood for a drink tonight,” I say as I watch James carrying the heavy hose to the truck.

“Great!” Doug says with a big dumb smile on his face. “It’s a date.”

I turn to him with a pointed look. “Nope. Not a date. I’m going solo.”

“Cool, cool,” he says, nodding. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“I’ll take my own car, thank you.”

“I’ll save you a seat at our table!”

I take a deep breath as I close my soaked sweater. “Fine. Thank you.”

“We gotta go!” the handsome Chief with the salt and pepper hair shouts. “We got another blaze on the other side of town.”

He hurries over to talk to me. “Don’t worry, the fire is fully extinguished and there’s no chance of it restarting. Call the mayor. She’ll help you with the next steps.”

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